I'm AWAKE!

I have been awake since 3 a.m. At first I could not figure out why on Earth I would be awake at such an hour. I got up (went to the bathroom - you know what everyone goes to do initially when they wake in the middle of the night) and that just wasn't it. My hand was still hurting some so I took something for that thinking maybe that little nagging pain bothered me enough to wake me. I drank some grape juice. Nah... none of this seemed to be it. Nor did I seem to be getting sleepy.

So I laid back down and that didn't work. I was warm and cozy and it was dark. So I got back up and I had some quiet time in prayer. And afterwards it was one of those moments I just realized hrmmm.... I'm up because you wanted me to get up and get going right? It was as though I could feel God shaking his head YES (emphatically!). So yeah, here I am God - I am up and at 'em! :) Hehehe. I think God knew... well, no I know God knew I needed some quiet time to myself this morning to get some things done that couldn't be done with a little girl running around the house and that included some morning time with Him. It's a good thing He woke me so early 'cause the little girl of the house woke up at 7 a.m. herself! Wowsers. I've been going to bed earlier and she has too. So we're having more early mornings and it's not been bad at all so far.

Yesterday, Julia Grace woke up around 4 a.m. and decided to kiss my face over and over while I slept and sing. Yes, SING. In.the.dark.at.4a.m. Like... Bababbabebaabaaaaa and Whoa Whoa Whoa ya Bow (Row, Row your boat). But how on Earth can you get upset with that? I finally said Julia Grace you're not going back to sleep are you? She giggled, ran in the living room, stood on the couch to turn on the overhead light and got in the recliner and waited. You know. For food and TV. Rotten I tell you! She had some ice water, an apple and watched 85% of Toy Story 2 before conking back out right around 6 a.m. I went back to bed after calling dad to wish him a Happy Birthday. She woke up in time for Sesame Street. Never fails. EVER.

I tell ya - I will be ready for a nice nap after lunch with Kari today! Maybe it will be raining by then to help me out with that! :) Oh, and thank You, God, for awakening me today!

Happy Birthday 'Ampa!

Happy Birthday 'Ampa!

Today is Grandpa's birthday - not sure if we're supposed to share his age with you so we won't! We hope he has a great birthday!

(It's also Uncle Phil's birthday too and we hope he has a great one too! He's 24 - we can tell you that much!)

Wordless Wednesday

I am ready to go in the zoo now!

On the way to Columbia to meet Grandma & Grandpa - finally after having to get a new battery for the Jeep on Easter Sunday of all things!
Grandma is hogging Julia Grace during our Easter lunch at Ruby Tuesday's.

Grandma gave her some good stuff to eat! She was eating Mom's mashed potatoes but NO broccoli today. She had already eaten some of her own kids meal.
Forget the Ruby Tuesday's food - I have Reese's Pieces in MY Easter basket!

Notice how she's more into the Reese's Pieces than what's in the basket...

Oooh... what's that? Chalk! (WASHABLE)

Julia Grace started pulling everything out of the basket one by one finally!

She liked her new Sesame Street books!

Puzzles too! George and Melissa & Doug!

We probably had about the most non-traditional Easter we've ever done this year. We met my mom and dad in Columbia and had lunch at Ruby Tuesday's instead of anyone cooking. Tracy and I had not spent actual Easter Sunday with my parents in at least 5 years.

After Ruby Tuesday's, we went to Riverbanks Zoo down the road. Mom and Dad had called the previous Tuesday night and said they wanted us to meet them for Easter in Columbia and take Julia Grace to the zoo. SO that's what we did and we had a great time ! We saved Julia Grace's Easter basket to open in front of Grandma and Grandpa. I will post Riverbanks pics later - I posted enough zoo pics earlier today!

Louisiana Day 4

Yummy chicken at Cane's!

This is what happens AFTER the Zoo!

Waiting on Nana to come get us...

Onyx the black panther - she had come running up to the zoo worker at the fence like she was going to pounce and suddenly laid down and PURRED!

The white tiger kept pouncing at the glass window whenever Tracy would look in at him!

Baby EMUS!

This was the parent emu that almost pecked me because I was leaning over taking the baby emus' picture. YIKES!

I told you she loves the zoo!

Tiger Tiger - ROAR!!! We would say Tiger Tiger and JG would roar. Ah... the Wiggles.

Rafiki!

Train at the zoo - it wasn't running yet on the weekdays.

Monkeys!

'Gators sunning themselves on the bank.

Why yes, that IS a peacock walking across my path!

It's an 'iraffe!

JG REALLY liked the llamas!

I did NOT let her pet anything at this petting zoo - it smelled and the pig had stuff flying around it. ICK!

250 lb. tortoise!

Julia Grace did "moo" when the cow mooed!

Yup, that's a rooster in my path!

I only let her pat the plastic alligators.

Pygmy Hippopotamus - It STUNK!

Bats

Black bear

Macaws

On our last day in Louisiana - we spent the afternoon at Zoo of Acadiana in Broussards. Tracy and I took Julia Grace while Philip and Nana were taking care of seeing about the Saturn being fixed. They told us about noon that it "COULD" be fixed that day.

The zoo wasn't a huge one but it was neat to go to one somewhere away from home and see how things were different. We had to wait in the parking lot for Cathy to come pick us up because the car seat was in her car at this point. JG ate some -ironically- animal crackers and fell asleep while waiting.

We ate at a chain called Cane's chicken for dinner before hitting the road. It was really good - wish we had one here! Tracy drove all night long Wednesday into Thursday to get home. We enjoyed seeing Philip and seeing Louisiana but we all had things to do and were just ready to be home.

lots to update...

I know I know...I keep saying I'll finish updating and I don't. But I will do it this weekend - most likely tomorrow evening. We're going to Nana and Papa's for a late dinner with them and Mamaw.
Julia Grace and I spent the day shopping and hanging out with Jayne and her boys all day yesterday. It was nice to get out and do something with a friend without being rushed to be anywhere else. Thursday afternoon I got really brave and took Mallory and Julia Grace to the Greenville Zoo all by myself! They played on the playground outside the zoo for an hour past close and then we met a clean Daddy (he'd been cutting yards all afternoon) for dinner and hanging out before Mallory went back to her mother's. Wednesday Tracy and I took Julia Grace to McDonald's for some playtime and lunch before they dropped me off at work,headed to get some pictures for some BPO's, then they came back to get me. It's just been a really busy week.

I've got a lot of things I want to get done this week. Lots of little projects around the house that I hope will make a big difference around here. Busy planning some small day trips for us and the girls too - I will be glad when summer gets here and Mallory can join us on our day excursions too. Hope everyone has had a great weekend so far and check back for more updates and pictures from the rest of Louisiana and Easter and 3 zoos in a month - whoa baby! Julia Grace is learning to say things like zoo and tell you what sounds animals make. She says E-ra (zebra) and A-raffe (giraffe). Hey...it's progress! She and Mallory really like petting zoos - they have a hoot and a half at them! Take care and check back later!

Louisiana Day 3

This was the first stop JG made in the museum.
Magnets...

Notice how they are color coordinated.

She does this with everything especially her tea set at home

A plethora of Potato Heads! Hahaha!

Of course - refridgerator magnets are exciting to Julia Grace no matter where they are!

Can he do it?

Yes, he can! Tracy in a bubble!

Bubble daddy!

Julia Grace tries her hand at making Bubbles like Daddy...

Hey... it popped!

Trains!

Julia Grace loves toy trains - Thomas, Brio, Melissa & Doug - doesn't matter just love the wooden trains!

I guess the folks in the ambulance needed some plastic lettuce?

Steering while under the influence of plastic lettuce - is this allowed?

Hey - look at me!

In the ambulance still...

It all looks yummy to me!

The "view" from the cafe window!

Julia Grace is serving up some lettuce for Nana!

And this is what happens when Julia Grace plays hard! Sleepy Julia Grace - look at her arms folded on her chest - so sweet and content!

On Tuesday, April 7 we checked out our hotel and headed over to Uncle Philip's place to unload. We decided to spend the remainder of our nights at his apartment.

After unloading and Tracy getting his emails handled for the day, Tracy, Cathy, myself and Julia Grace ventured out for a bit. We went to the Children's Museum of Acadiana . We spent several hours there and had a good bit of fun. It was similar to KidSenses, but with a local flavor. They had a restaurant which had crawfish on the menu and the grocery store was a Winn-Dixie (yeah they're extinct up here ya know!). Tracy and Julia Grace had fun with the bubbles and the trains the most I believe. Julia Grace served all three of us plates with lettuce on them in the restaurant.

After visiting the museum, we ate lunch at Don's Seafood Hut. Nana just had a salad. Julia Grace had their cheeseburger plate. I had a seafood platter with oysters, shrimp, catfish and a stuffed crab. Tracy was brave and tried the local dish of crawfish etouffee and friend crawfish tails. I tried some too. We really liked it everything we had. I forgot that I do actually like fresh fried oysters. It was really yummy! We then stopped by a local Starbucks 'cause hey... there it was and I'd been craving it for 2 days. We all, well, not Julia Grace, had Starbucks and I really enjoyed my Vanilla Latte. Starbucks is dangerous for me - I just LOooooVE a good coffee!

After this we headed back to Uncle Phil's place and everyone opted for a nap. After Philip got home, he and Cathy went to the grocery store and got some things Philip needed and some groceries. I made spaghetti casserole and Phil's friend Nathan came over to eat with us. We all had a good dinner and chilled out at his place the rest of the evening.